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Tag: Adamu Adamu

  • FG approves 37 new universities

    FG approves 37 new universities

    Few days to the expiration of the present administration the Federal Executive Council meeting chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has approved the licensing of 37 new universities in the country.

    Adamu Adamu, Nigeria’s minister of Education made this known after the extra-ordinary Council meeting on Monday.

    Accordibg to him, the licensing of 37 new universities will bring the total to 72 universities that the Buhari government would have approved in his eight years of administering the country.

    He failed to name the universities, but revealed that one of them is an online university, the first of its kind in Nigeria, and owned by a woman from Bauchi State, with expectation that it will cater for the likes of northern Muslim women who feel reluctant or are restrained from attending physical campus education.

    Fielding questions on the expediency of additional universities given funding challenges of the existing ones, Adamu explained that these ones are all private, with enough funds to run them and they should not be denied the opportunity to exist.

    The Minister further explained that Nigeria actually needs more universities as the available ones are not adequate to take up all those yearning for higher education.

  • Buhari appoints pioneer Rector for Federal Poly, Orogun

    Buhari appoints pioneer Rector for Federal Poly, Orogun

    President Muhammadu Buhari has appointed Dr Duke Okoro as the pioneer Rector of Federal Polytechnic, Orogun in Ughelli North local government area of Delta State.

    TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports the letter of Dr Okoro’s appointment dated January 31, 2023 was issued by the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu on Monday.

    The appointment was duly considered and approved by President Buhari.

    Okoro was the Director of International Development at the Federal University of Petroleum Resources, Effurun, Delta State

    Okoro bagged his PhD degree in Environmental Analytical Chemistry from the prestigious University of Benin in 2004.

    He is a Fellow of the Chemical Society of Nigeria (FCSN); Fellow of the Nigerian Environmental Society (FNES); Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Chemists of Nigeria (FICCON), and Fellow of the Institute of Management Consultant (FIMC).

    The newly appointed rector is also a Member, of the Institute of Public Analyst of Nigeria (MIPAN); the Chemical Profession of Alberta, Canada (PChem), and a Member of the Environmental Careers Organization, Canada (EP), amongst others.

    He has published lots of articles in national and international indexed journals and has concluded over 80 technical environmental studies in IOCs and marginal field operators in the oil and gas sector.

    He is married with children.

  • New pry schools language policy: A national distraction of sorts – By Dennis Onakinor

    New pry schools language policy: A national distraction of sorts – By Dennis Onakinor

    Summary

    Dennis Onakinor expresses deep misgivings about Nigeria’s newly formulated “National Language Policy,” which makes the “mother tongue” the “exclusive” medium of instruction in its primary schools. While observing that the policy could spell disaster for primary education in the country, he urges the government to maintain the status quo, which allows the concurrent use of English and the “mother tongue” as mediums of instruction.  

    Full Article

    With the notable exception of Africa’s second most-populous country, Ethiopia, nearly every one of Africa’s 55 Independent sovereign states is a creation of European colonialism. From British colonialism emerged Nigeria, the continent’s most-populous state – a patchwork of over 360 ethnic groups speaking an estimated 625 different languages with innumerable dialects. 

    Both critics and apologists of colonialism acknowledge one incontrovertible fact: that one of the few benefits Africans derived from decades of rapacious colonial rule is the use of common European languages as mediums of communication among the disparate ethno-linguistic groups inextricably lumped together in various countries. A consequence of this development is the predominance of English and French as mediums of expression on the African continent, being the languages of the two dominant colonialists. 

    Truly, no other African state has benefited from the use of a common European language more than Nigeria, an African microcosm comprising a sizable portion of the continent’s estimated 2000 ethno-linguistic groups. Hence, there is no gainsaying the fact that the English language is an invaluable bridge between the country’s multiplicity of ethno-linguistic groups. And, as the official medium of communication and learning, English helped propel several Nigerians, including Literature Novel Laureate Wole Soyinka and Africa’s foremost novelist, the late Chinua Achebe, to the summit of global scholarship. Similarly, it has positioned the country on the path of scientific and technological advancement.  

    Against this backdrop, the November 30, 2022 announcement by the Nigerian Minister for Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, that the government has formulated a “National Language Policy” making the “mother tongue” the “exclusive” medium of instruction in all primary schools, is seen by some people as an unwelcome step in the country’s educational development, while others have described it as an attempt to spell doom for its primary education.  

    Although details of the new National Language Policy are still sketchy, Mallam Adamu disclosed as follows in course of his press briefing: “The government has agreed now that henceforth, instruction in primary schools, the first six years of learning will be in the mother tongue … The decision is only in principle for now, because it will require a lot of work to implement … Though the policy has officially taken effect, full implementation will start when government develops instructional materials and qualified teachers are engaged … because we have 625 languages at the last count and the objective of this policy is to promote and enhance the cultivation and use of all Nigerian languages.” 

    In his bid to allay palpable fears that the new language policy is designed to perpetuate the socio-cultural dominance of the country’s estimated 622 minority ethnic groups by the majority Hausa, Igbo, and Yoruba groups, Mallam Adamu, who prides himself as a polyglot fluent in Hausa, English, French, Arabic, and Persian languages, explained that the mother tongue to be used in each primary school will be the dominant language spoken by the community where the institution is located, and that “all Nigerian languages are equal and will be treated as such.”

    Laudable as the idea of revitalizing Nigerian indigenous languages may be, there are genuine concerns in respect of the new primary schools’ language policy: Have the requisite academic curricula been developed in respect of all identified 625 languages? How, when, and where will the teachers or instructors required for the policy implementation be recruited and trained? How and when will the textbooks and related materials for each of the 625 languages be designed and made available to the pupils? Is there an adequacy of qualified consultants and supervisors to ensure the desired level of quality? Etc.

    Children, in course of primary education, develop the innate skills and aptitude required for knowledge acquisition in adulthood. In this connection, language precision comes into focus. Unlike universal languages such as English, most Nigerian indigenous languages lack scientific precision or terminological exactitude, as legions of scientific terms do not have corresponding terms. Hence, inexact descriptive statements usually apply. And, since knowledge acquisition is incremental and cumulative, any child who is not well-grounded at the primary school level is bound to struggle at the Junior Secondary School (JSS) level and beyond. In this light, the “exclusive” use of the “mother tongue” in primary schools runs the risk of breeding scientifically ignorant children. 

    The term “Mother Tongue” refers to an individual’s first language or parental language spoken at home. But, in Nigeria’s cosmopolitan environments inhabited by working-class families of diverse ethno-linguistic background, the application of the term is bound to be problematic due to the probability that the dominant language in a particular host community may not be the mother tongue of most of the primary school pupils of that community. Lagos, with its diverse multi-lingual inhabitants, exemplifies this scenario. 

    The problem of immobility of labour vis-a-vis primary school teachers could be triggered by the implementation of the new policy, as individuals find it difficult moving across ethno-linguistic boundaries in search of employment opportunities. The policy could also encourage labour migration from rural to urban locations, as primary school teachers seek certification in languages dominant in metropolitan environments like Lagos, Ibadan, Port Harcourt, Enugu, Kano, Kaduna, etc. A corollary to such rural-urban drift is the inadvertent perpetuation of Igbo, Hausa, and Yoruba dominance over other linguistic groups, thus making the policy a vehicle for hegemonism in the country. 

    Some critics assert that the likely beneficiaries of the new policy are the bureaucrats and contractors that would be involved in procurement and distribution of related textbooks and materials, while the casualties would be the public school pupils of poor parental background, who are unable to afford the fees payable in private schools. For, it doesn’t require a soothsayer to know that the policy will not be accorded any level of seriousness in private schools across the country; and that the disparity in quality of learning between private and public schools will become glaring at the JSS level, when private primary school leavers taught in English language effortlessly outshine those of public schools taught in the mother tongue.

    It would be recalled that in November 2017, the Nigerian Army formulated a language policy that required its personnel to acquire certificated proficiency in Igbo, Hausa, and Yoruba languages, for the purpose of fostering “espirit-de-corps and national unity.” Suffice to say that the Nigerian House of Representatives swiftly ordered the immediate discontinuation of the policy on grounds that it served no useful purpose other than “infringing on the fundamental rights of the minority languages in the country.” Perhaps, the legislative body would also do well to review the new primary schools’ language policy in order to determine its suitability.  

    From the perspective of globalization, the supplanting of English by the “mother tongue” in Nigerian primary schools is an unwelcome development in an era that has seen the rest of the world gravitating towards the universal language, which has become the world’s foremost medium of communication and scientific research. Nigeria cannot afford to deny its primary school children the benefit of early acquaintance with the universal language, otherwise incalculable harm might have been done before the authorities come to the realization.

    Recently, the Nigerian mainstream media was awash with reports of Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka’s lamentation of the removal of the academic subject of “History” from Nigeria’s secondary schools’ curriculum, as he described the subject as “fundamental to self-knowledge, to identity, to understanding where you came from, and therefore where you might be headed.” Perhaps, the government might have had a rethink had Soyinka and other Nigerian intellectuals vehemently opposed the plan to remove the subject from the school curriculum back in 2009. 

    Taking cognizance of Mallam Adamu’s statement that the new language policy decision “is only in principle for now,” Soyinka and other reputable Nigerian intellectuals could still prevail on the government to retain the English language as a medium of instruction to be used concurrently with the mother tongue in primary schools across the country. 

    Cynics maintain that the new language policy is a calculated move on the part of the government to distract the Nigerian masses from their increasingly harsh conditions of existence. They argue that instead of engaging in shadow-chasing, the government should squarely address the country’s dire socioeconomic conditions, which have seen desperate Nigerian male and female youths risking dangerous migrant journeys across the Sahara Desert and the Mediterranean Sea, on their way to European uncertainty. Viewed from their perspective, the new policy is an unwelcome distraction.

    In the seventies, as a primary school pupil in Esan land, one of Edo States’ ethno-linguistic communities, Yours Sincerely enjoyed the privilege of being taught by erudite teachers of Igbo and Yoruba origins. With the new language policy, primary school children of same community and elsewhere in the State may not be opportune to enjoy such a privilege, and Nigeria’s national unity may be worse for it. 

    • Dennis Onakinor, a global affairs analyst, writes from Lagos – Nigeria. He can be reached via e-mail at dennisonakinor@yahoo.com
  • Education: From Bumbling to Babel – By Chidi Amuta

    Education: From Bumbling to Babel – By Chidi Amuta

    President Buhari’s Minister of Education, Mr. Adamu Adamu, is a man who likes to take himself seriously. In ordinary circumstances, he should pass as one of the islands of some enlightenment in the arid cabinet of the outgoing administration. A long standing regional newspaper columnist and commentator on public affairs who finds himself at the helm of a strategic federal ministry should minimally arouse some excitement and legitimate grand expectations.

    But after a prolonged tenure  (seven and half years and still counting) at the helm of a ministry that has grave national importance, Mr. Adamu is literally in a wilderness, left alone to determine whether he has not wasted his and everyone else’s time.

    The nation’s education sector under Mr. Adamu’s watch is arguably in its most tattered state since after the civil war. No one knows when the pubic universities are open or shut. Standards in public schools and colleges are at an abysmal low. There is now a chasm of standards and quality between private and public institutions at every level. An insensitive national elite has opted to educate their offspring mostly in the West. The foundations of a segregated society of the future has been laid. Perhaps only Mr. Adamu and his boss can, in good conscience, look at the current carnage in the nation’s education system and nod with satisfaction.

    Perhaps out of a self righteous indignation and political expediency, Mr. Adamu recently tendered  what amounts to a public apology to the nation for his dismal performance as minister of education. In his estimation, he had failed tragically in two core areas. First is the virtual collapse of the public university system following a series of protracted strikes and work stoppages by various unions in the university system.

    He regretted the protracted strikes and infinite closures of public universities under his watch. The brickbat with the university teachers trade union, ASUU, lasted almost the entire length of his tenure. While the ASUU crisis lasted, students were at home, swelling the ranks of the aimless and the jobless free agents of criminality and raging army of the unemployed. Otherwise respectable academics and scholars were rendered destitute and dirt poor. Minor technical arguments about simple accounting and arithmetic were allowed to delay negotations with the teachers while the system died in installments.

    The ASUU imbroglio may not have been strictly Mr. Adamu’s sole making. His colleagues in the Ministry of Labout never understood or respected the different nature of the work of university teachers. Nor was the government in itself ready to explore alternative templates for public university funding and operation. Yet the universities remain a educational enterprises and therefore fall squarely under Mr. Adamu’s portfolio.

    The long period of university closure was agolden opportunity for anysensible minister of education to have mounted serious public campaigns on how best to reform and salvage the nation’s public university system. Mr. Adamu didpractivally nothing in this direction. Instead he stood by and watched the fire fights between ASUU snd the Ministry of Labour more like a spectator than as an active and engaged participant. There is no evidence that the Minister of Education rose to the occasion of defending the integrity of the universities. Nor is there any record of innovative problem solving from Adamu’s ministry of education. Instead, the Ministry of education was in an observer role while Labour treated the ASUU matter purely as a trade union matter. All through, the core educational challenges were relegated to the hazy backdrop. As a result, Mr. Adamu is likely to go down as the nation’s worst Minister of Education under whose watch Nigeria’s public universities were shut perhaps for the longest stretch of time in national history.

    A second leg of his public apology was the astronomical increase in Nigeria’s out of school population in recent years. According to UNESCO figures, the population of out of school children in Nigeria now stands at a staggering 20 million as at October 2022 . This indicates that 40% of Nigerian children aged between 6 and 11 years are out of school mostly in the northern half of the country. The UN has estimated that Nigeria’s out of school population accounts for 20% of the global total. Former President Obasanjo recently said the crisis of Nigeria’s budgeoning out of school population was laying the foundation for the next wave of terrorists upsurge.

    Here again, there is little or no evidence that the Ministry of education under Mr. Adamu was in any case engaged or concerned about how to stem the tide of what is easily a global embarrassment. It does not matter that primary education education remains mostly the responsibility of state and local governments. But national policy and the kind of initiate ve required to end the scourge of out of school children  remains a federal national responsibility. On this critical matter, Mr. Adamu maintained a stone silence.

    The recourse to a public apology on matters that are so strategic and central to his portfolio is a curious strategy. The appearance of humility and good intention does not address the patent lack of competence in so vital a department of state responsibility. The elite could grudgingly accept Mr. Adamu’s apology but the damage has already been done.

    Whole generations of Nigerian children are out of school, denied the only right that should liberate them from poverty and darkness for life. Hundreds of thousands of undergraduates have failed to enter the labour market even if it has few opportunities for them. Some have dropped out. Many ambitions have been truncated, dreams amputated and livelihood killed. While the nation’s human asset rotted away during the ASUU absences under Mr. Adamu’s watch, the minister, like the rest of our national elite, was content with ferreting his offspring to foreign universities to benefit from more sensibly run systems. When protesting NANS students trooped to his office in protest to draw his drew his attention to this anomaly, Mr. Adamu felt so slighted that he rudely walked out of a meeting with a delegation of Nigerian students.

    As a parting gift and perhaps some legacy inititative, the Minister has just announced Cabinet’s approval of a new language policy template for the nation’s public primary schools. Under the proposed policy, which is still a rough draft, all instruction in Nigerian primary schools will be in the child’s ‘mother tongue’. In effect, all Nigerian children from age 6 will be instructed in their ‘mother tongue’. No one has yet told us the definition of ‘mother tongue in the context of this strange policy proposition. The children will only begin to learn in English from the secondary school, presumably from age 11.

    In a nation that has well over 600 languages, no one knows what will be the ‘mother tongue’ of children in different locations. Not ot talk of the fact that in most Nigerian locations, cultural interfaces and cross currents has produced children of mixed linguistic parentage and whose mother tongue cannot easily be defined. Nor is there any evidence that there exist enough teachers with language proficiency in these languages to be able to instruct children in them. Not to talk of whether our educational system has developed enough teacher capacity and proficiency in even the major national languages to be able to base primary education instruction on those languages.

    Even the determination of what constitutes a child’s mother tongue can be a herculean task in a diverse, multi lingual and composite federation such as this. Is the child’s mother tongue that of where his/her school happens to be located? Or is the mother tongue that of where his parents originated from? Or is it the language spoken at home or the one in which the child communicates with his two parents who happen to hail from different nationalities?

    The new draft policy may have disciples among advocates of linguistic nationalism. The ancient argument is that a child is more likely to internalize knowledge when it is imparted in his ‘mother tongue’ or local language. Concepts are clearer and lose their strangeness or  foreignness when imparted in a language that the child uses in his natural interactions and social communication.  Those who parrot this advantage are quick to insist that English or any other foreign language is part of a colonial foreign cultural orientation which has alienated homegrown knowledge and bred generations of alienated citizens far removed from their roots. They quickly point to the strides of other cultures like the Japanese and Chinese who for centuries have instructed their citizens in their local languages and achieved great cultural, scientific and technological feats.

    But these are nations that are mostly homogeneous in ethnic and linguistic composition. They have the additional advantage of having witnessed long periods of historical and civilizational pre eminence and continuity as monolithic cultures for many centuries. Language and national culture have fused.

    In our instance, we are dealing with a muti cultural, multi lingual and highly diverse society. One of the bonds that holds our nation together is the use of English as an instrument of education and social communication. The history of our nationhood is the story of ancient tribes brought together by English speakers and held together by the legacy of a unifying pan-Nigerian language. The business of Nigeria will not survive for a day fter we stop communicating in English as a national community. Our children are better Nigerians when they are able to communicate and interact with each other in English. In that uniform mould, they shed their ethnic identities and fuse into one uniform national identity.  We are by far better off when a uniform national identity is part of the educational process from the onset.

    To insist otherwise as Mr. Adamu’s envisaged policy template does is to deliberately use the education system to enshrine division. Moreso, to educate our primary school children in local ‘mother tongues’ is to lock them up, early in life , in enclaves of nativity where their immediate embrace is with superstition, backwardness and decadence. That zone of our national life is now the bastion of ritual, superstition and antiquity. We left our homegrown potential for authentic development behind in the villages decades ago. It is too late in the day to retreat from the rest of humanity to rediscover paradise lost.

    The local ‘mother tongues’ may indeed have their intrinsic knowledge and cultural values in diverse fields. But little or ne effort has been made to develop these languages  to the level where they can become tools for instruction in different subjects at such an early stage in the child’s development process.

    There is a need of course to develop the local languages alongside English. Children should be able to communicate in their relevant local tongues alongside English. But the imperative of national integration and the pull of global integration and belonging demands that we start early to prepare citizens to be able to compete with their peers in the rest of the world. Such competitiveness  should be in the areas of basic universal literacy and numeracy as well as basic science and technology.

    Even as Mr. Adamu and his principal prepare to leave their dismal legacy in our educational system, there remain clear and urgent questions and challenges that confront us as a nation. How do our children rank in maths, basic science, functional literacy as against their opposite numbers in other countries? What is the state of health and nutrition of the average Nigerian primary school kid? In what kind of environment are we raising the children in terms ofaceesto basic social services?

    These are the fundamental challenges of Nigeria’s early childhood education. It is not the initiation of a confusing babel of mother tongues among children in a nation that desperately needs integration and unity.

  • Nigeria to ditch English as means of instruction in pry schools

    Nigeria to ditch English as means of instruction in pry schools

    The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved a National Language Policy for use in all primary schools across the country.

    Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu made this known to State House correspondents at the end of the Council meeting which was presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday in Abuja.

    “A memo on national policy was approved by the council. So, Nigeria now has a National Language Policy and the details will be given later by the ministry.

    “One of the highlights is that the government has agreed now that henceforth, instruction in primary schools; the first six years of learning will be in the mother tongue,” Adamu said.

    This means that when the policy is implemented, the English language will no longer be the language for instruction in primary schools across the country.

    According to the minister, the decision is only in principle for now, stressing that it will require a lot of work to implement it.

    “Theoretically, this policy starts from today but the use of mother tongue is exclusive but we need time to develop the material, get the teachers and so on.

    ”Since the first six years of school should be in the mother tongue, whereby the pupil is, the language of the host community is what will be used.

    “Because we have 625 languages at the last count and the objective of this policy is to promote, and enhance the cultivation and use of all Nigerian languages,” he added.

  • Towards the Federal Republic of Illiteracy – By Owei Lakemfa

    Towards the Federal Republic of Illiteracy – By Owei Lakemfa

    EDUCATION Minister, Adamu Adamu, after presiding over the N5.6 trillion Education Budget in the last seven years and the N1.3 trillion intervention fund in four years, announced he has failed. It is not that as Education Minister, he has failed to preside over spending about N7 trillion in seven years, but, has failed to deliver on basic programmes and promises.

    However, like other smart alecs, he exonerates himself. He, rather, blames the state governors for his manifest failure. Adamu said the main policy of the Buhari education programme was to pull: “children out of the street back to the school, but evidently, the actions of the state governments are pushing the children back to the streets.”

    Adamu’s tale is that in 2016, he wrote a Ministerial Strategic Plan which he took to the Federal Executive Council requesting that a State-Of-Emergency in Education be declared especially at the lower level. He continued his story: “A decision couldn’t be taken on this because the issue of emergency in education at the level of primary school is a State Government responsibility.

    So, I was directed by the President to turn that into a memo for the National Economic Council which I did with the thinking that if the Council bought into it and the members are State Governors, it means it would just become a nationwide thing.”Let us assume, without conceding that this Adamu story of state governors truncating the education programme is true, how does this explain the case of  the Federal Capital Territory, FCT controlled entirely by the Federal Government where the population of the out-of-school children under Adamu has dramatically increased?

    The Executive power over the FCT in line with Section 302 of the constitution is vested in President Muhammadu Buhari who exercises it through the FCT Minister. So, if Adamu could not cut or eliminate the number of out-of-school children across the country because the state governors allegedly obstructed him, what about the FCT where the President is Governor?

    Perhaps if Adamu and the government he serves had tackled this problem in the FCT, they could have held it up as a shiny example. But tragically, as the number of these hapless children, according to the United Nations Children Fund, UNICEF swelled from 10.1 million in 2021 to 18.5 million this year, the FCT and ten other states are responsible for this   huge leap into illiteracy.

    Unlike the Jonathan era, children today, in their thousands roam the streets of the FCT during school hours. This is a common sight in the satellite towns of the FCT. So, it is not entirely true that it is the state governors that have stalled the fight to drastically reduce the number of out-of-school children, rather, the main problem is the Buhari administration and its grossly incapable Education Minister who is ‘full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.’

    I can further demonstrate the validity of this assertion by presenting another aspect of this issue which is entirely under the purview of this government and  Minister Adamu. The 18.5 million out-of-school children in Nigeria today, include 3.5 million children from nomadic background. The Jonathan administration set out deliberately to eliminate this phenomenon by heavily investing human and material resources.

    It built over 165 special schools specifically for the children of nomads. Some of these integrated schools, had  integrated language  laboratories and health clinics, free hostels and feeding. But with the advent of the Buhari administration and Adamu as Education Minister, almost all  these schools were shut-down and the pupils pushed back to the streets to populate the out-of-school children.

    Today, due to the inability of the government to protect our towns and villages, many of our people in the North have been forced out of their homes and with their children, have found refuge in the various Internally Displaced Persons, IDP camps in the FCT. These children are mainly out of school. What has stopped Minister Adamu and the Education Ministry under him ensuring that all the children in the IDP camps are in school being provided free education including books, uniforms and meals? Or are the state governors also responsible for this abandonment of the hapless and helpless?

    When we move to tertiary education under Adamu’s ministerial suzerainty, we are confronted with failure on an unimaginable scale. The fact that public universities were shut-down  for eight months this year partly due to Adamu’s insensitivity, inability to comprehend basic issues and grandstanding, is an undeniable testimony to the monumental failure he has turned out to be.

    So monumental that even those of us with the same DNA as Adamu in journalism and column writing, could not stake our reputation to put in a word for him. In a sense, his admission of failure after seven years as minister, and given the fact that he has less than seven months to climb down from his ministerial mountain top, is a strategy to smoothen his return to earth. His self-confessed failure is not an honest assessment or admission; if it were, he would not blame others for his failures.

    A principled man would have made an honest admission, apologised for the millions of souls his failure has affected, and bowed out. But since it is a poorly scripted drama piece, he declares he is a failure but sits in the same Ministry in his ministerial toga, enjoying the perquisites of office and adding to his unenviable records as Education minister.

    At the weekend, the differences in the education standards between  Britain and Nigeria were evident in the meeting of two men who are products of the same British education system.  President Buhari, 79 who since becoming Nigerian President in May 2015, has cumulatively spent over seven months residing  in Britain for medicals, visited 73-year old King Charles III.

    During the visit, the latter jocularly asked Buhari whether he has a house in Britain. The satire was lost on the latter who thought the King meant a physical structure. Buhari himself recounts the encounter: “He (King Charles III) asked me whether I have a house here (in the UK), I said no. I live in Nigeria alone, the only house(s) I have are those I have (sic) before I got into government and I am not very much interested in having houses all over the place. I feel much freer when I have nothing.”

    If Charles, as the sovereign head of Britain wants to know if Buhari has a physical house in the country, he does not need to ask him, all he needs is request the British government for such information. We need to urgently check  the increasing number of out-of-school children, otherwise Nigeria would be marching towards a Federal Republic of Illiteracy.

  • Yazid Rafindadi’s death painful – Unilorin VC

    Yazid Rafindadi’s death painful – Unilorin VC

    Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ilorin, Prof Sulyman Abdulkareem, on Thursday, expressed shock over the death of the institution’s Pro-Chancellor, Malam Yazid Rafindadi.

    Abdulkareem, in a statement issued by the university’s Director of Corporate Affairs, Mr Kunle Akogun, described the pro-chancellor’s death as very painful to the entire staff members and students of the institution.

    According to him, Rafindadi’s demise is particularly painful at this point in time when his services are needed most by the institution and the nation’s university system.

    The vice-chancellor described the late pro-chancellor as a fantastic and hardworking leader who served the university with competence and dedication.

    He recalled that the Rafindadi brought to bear great humility, uncommon civility and infectious sensitivity in the discharge of his responsibilities.

    The vice-chancellor stated that the university and the country in general would surely miss the services and patriotism of the late pro-chancellor “who was evidently one of the best of his generation.”

    He condoled with the Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, and the university’s Chancellor and Emir of Katsina, Dr Abdulmumini Usman, as well as members of the Governing Council over the death of the pro-chancellor.

    Abdulkareem also condoled with Gov. Aminu Masari of Katsina State and the people of the state over the loss of Rafindadi, whom he described as a great son of the state.

    He also commiserated with the family, friends and colleagues of the deceased.

    He prayed Allah to grant the university and members of Rafindadi’s immediate family the fortitude to bear the loss, forgive his shortcomings and make Aljannah Fridaous his final abode.

  • ASUU Strike: Adamu advises Nigerian students to study in other African nations

    ASUU Strike: Adamu advises Nigerian students to study in other African nations

    The Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, has said there is nothing wrong for Nigerian students to seek university education in other African nations and elsewhere, following the ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU.

     

    According to the minister, it is not wrong if Nigerian students go to school in other African nations and not necessarily in Nigeria.

     

    Adamu made this statement in an interview on Channels TV on Wednesday, about the ministry’s plans to prevent students from leaving Nigerian institutions and opting for foreign universities.

     

    TheNewsGuru.com gathered that about 75, 000 Nigerians are currently running undergraduate courses in Ghana, Benin Republic and Egypt.

     

    But in reaction to the statistics, the minister said it is not a new development.

     

    “It is not a bad reputation in the sense that people going out to study is not a bad thing. The only thing you have to say is that our universities should try to attract students so that instead of money going out, money will come in,” he said.

     

    He also dismissed claims that Nigeria’s educational system is the reason parents are sending their children to study in other African universities, saying the internationalization of schools means people can study anywhere.

     

    “So, going out to study can never be a problem to anybody,” he said.

     

    Speaking on the persistent strike embarked upon by ASUU, Adamu explained that the Federal Government has made an offer to the university teachers.

     

    He disclosed that the government proposed a one-time package for the striking lecturers, which he said would not be paid in installments.

     

    “The agreement we reached or the position that I offered of government that I offered to is something government can pay if they say they will agree,” the education minister added.

     

    Recall that since ASUU’s first strike in 1988, when it protested against the extremities of the regime of General Ibrahim Babangida, which led to the banning of the group on August 7, 1988, ASUU strikes in Nigeria have been recurring decimal over the years that they have come to be recognized as a yearly event, a time when academic activities stall and public universities go on forced break.

     

    TheNewsGuru.com reports that while ASUU embarked on strike 16 times since 1999, it continually blamed its decision on the failure of the government to meet its demands.

  • ASUU strike: FG announces salary increment for lecturers

    ASUU strike: FG announces salary increment for lecturers

    The federal government of Nigeria has proposed a 23.5 per cent salary increase for lecturers, while a 35% increment would be enjoyed by professors if the offer is accepted by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

    TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports that the government also once again set up committee, made up of 14 members to look into the grey areas of the demands of ASUU even as the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, today, stressed that the government could only afford 23.5 per cent salary increase for the lecturers and 35% increment for professors.

    Adamu, while speaking during a meeting with vice-chancellors and other stakeholders in the university system, also noted that President Muhammadu Buhari warned against signing agreements which the government will not be able to meet.

    ”The Federal Government can only afford a 23.5% salary increase for all category of the workforce in Federal Universities, except for the professorial cadre which will enjoy a 35% upward review. Henceforth, allowances that pertain to ad-hoc duties of the academic and non-academic staff shall be paid as at when due by the Governing Councils of Universities to which such services are rendered and to the staff who perform them.

    “That a sum of 150 billion Naira shall be provided for in the 2023 Budget as funds for the revitalization of Federal Universities, to be disbursed to the Institutions in the First Quarter of the year, and that a sum of 50 billion Naira shall be provided for in the 2023 Budget for the payment of outstanding areas of earned academic allowances, to be paid in the First Quarter of the year”.

    Speaking at the end of the meeting, the pro-chancellor of the National Open University of Nigeria, Professor Peter Okebukola, noted that the government was ready to go all out to ensure that the university lecturers return back to school.

    ASUU: FG again sets up 14-man committee on grey areas

    Meanwhile, the Federal Government has again set up a 14-man committee to look into the grey areas of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) demands.

    Mr Ben Goong, the Spokesperson of the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu disclosed this at a press conference at the end of the meeting between the Federal Government, Vice Chancellors and Pro-Chancellors of public universities on Tuesday in Abuja .

    Members of the committee are Prof. Nimmi Briggs, Chairman, ASUU/FG negotiation team, Prof. Olu Obafemi, Chairman, Governing Council, Federal University, Minna, and Udo Udoma, former Minister of Budget and National Planning.

    Others include Prof.  Bashir Dalhatu, an elder  statesman, Prof. Kabiru Bala, Vice Chancellor, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Prof. Kayode Adebowale, Vice Chancellor, University of Ibadan and Prof. Lilian Salami, Vice Chancellor, University of Benin.

    Also, Prof. Duro Oni, the President, Academics of letters, Prof. Akinsanya Osibogun, President, Academics of Medicine and the President of Academic of Science made the list.

    Prof. Charles Igwe, Vice Chancellor, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, JAMB Registrar and Prof. Abubakar Rasheed, the Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission (NUC) are also included.

    “After enormous two-hours deliberations, the meeting constituted a committee made up of four Pro-Chancellors, five Vice Chancellors and others, to be chaired by the minister of education to further look at the grey areas ASUU is demanding, particularly the areas where there has been no consensus.

    “As I speak to you, that committee is meeting and they will proceed to meet with President Muhammadu Buhari on the outcome of the deliberations of that committee.

    “Two basic areas that the committee will be looking at is the ‘no work no pay’ issue and the issue of remuneration of university lecturers,” he said.

    On the demand of ASUU to use the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS), Goong explained that it was not part of the areas under consideration as government had already set up a committee to fine-tune the two payment platforms including the existing IPPIS.

    He said that in few days’ time, the committee would conclude and thereafter meet with President Muhammad Buhari.

    On if the earlier Nimi Briggs committee would be jettison in place of the new committee, Goong said the new committee was in continuation of the Briggs committee.

    “The meeting is on government side. There has been appeals for the government to take a second look at the ‘no work, no pay’ measure and that is one of the issues that the committee will look at,” he said.

    Also, Prof. Peter Okebukola, the Chairman, Governing Council, National Open Universities (NOUN) expressed worry over the shut-down of the universities.

    Okebukola promised that the dark cloud would soon clear as lecturers would in no time resume work, saying that the committee would conclude in no distant time.

    He, therefore, said that the government was open to continued discussions and deliberations to end the strike.

    On ranking of Nigerian universities, Okebukola said that the 2022 ranking was about to be concluded, saying that the ranking by the National Universities Commission (NUC) was the best in the world.

    He said that this was due to the inclusivity, transparency and the credibility of its data.

    ASUU: State varsities pull out due to threats from employers – stakeholders

    Some stakeholders have continued to react to the pulling out of some state universities from the ongoing indefinite strike by ASUU, saying they pulled out due to threats from their employers.

    It would be recalled that some state universities such as the Kaduna State University, (KASU), Ekiti State University (EKSU) and the Nasarawa State University, Keffi have pulled out of the ongoing indefinite strike actions by ASUU.

    While other state universities refused to join the nationwide strike, they include Osun, Rivers, Delta, Borno, Anambra, Kwara, Akwa Ibom states and the three universities owned by Lagos State.

    Dr  Oluremi Oni, a lecturer in the University of Maiduguri (UNIMAID) said that the pulling out by state universities from the strike would not in any way affect the structure of the union.

    Oni, who blamed ASUU for bringing state universities into the issues affecting federal universities, said their pulling out was actually proper.

    According to her, no matter how many state universities that pulled out of the struggle, this will not affect our collective desire to protect the country’s educational system.

    “Government has shown that they don’t like ASUU; when a similar thing happened last year, ASUU gave the government the presentation and they picked the one they could honour and threw it back at ASUU and ASUU was okay with them at that time.

    “So it was because of government’s inability to implement the agreement last year that made ASUU to go back to strike.

    “Government did not implement what it promised us and now they are expanding the problem and the public does not even know what the problem is and everybody is blaming ASUU,” she said.

    Oni expressed concern over the action of government’s intention to extend the meeting with the union till June 2023, saying that this showed lack of commitment to education.

    On the ‘no work, no pay’ stands by the government on ASUU, she blamed the government on this approach, saying that the union took the decision on behalf of the generality of Nigerian children to have quality education not minding the fact that their children were also affected.

    “The government has forgotten that ASUU members also have children in these universities and so members are also losing.’’

    The Secretary, Workers and Youths Solidarity Network (WYSN), Mr Damilola Owot called on the leadership of ASUU to re-emphasise the benefits of the strike to state workers with a view to giving them reasons to maintain the tempo and not to relax.

    According to him, ASUU should pay special attention to specific needs of the state universities too and incorporate them into their future demands.

    “We extend our solidarity to the members of the ASUU who are currently on strike.

    “The decision of some state universities to pull out of ASUU could largely be linked to threats from their respective employers – state governments.

    “The demands are clear and vivid; honour agreements, pay salary arrears and adopt UTAS.

    “We believe that both the State and Federal workers stand to benefit from the concessions,” he said.

    Meanwhile, the National Coordinator, Congress of University Academics (CONUA), Dr Niyi Sunmonu insisted that the liberalisation of academic unions was the only way out to end incessant strikes in universities.

    Sunmonu said the liberalisation would engender cross-fertilisation of ideas, nurture healthy competition and protect the interests of all stakeholders hence there would be no need for strike.

    “Freedom of association is enshrined in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

    “And as long as that provision still exists in the constitution, Nigerian citizens are freeborn and they can operate under it to freely associate.

    “We hope that the freedom of association will continue to help the advancement of learning in our universities,” he said.

    Also, the former National President, National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), Mr Sunday Asefon had previously called on state-owned universities to opt out of the action.

    Asefon said that ASUU had lost the support of Nigerian students given the unpatriotic disposition displayed by them in extending their strike indefinitely.

    Asefon said students would no longer support the union’s call for intervention, while accusing the body of being self-serving.

    “We have taken the time to review the decision of ASUU to declare an indefinite strike after the ongoing six-month strike.

    “We consider the decision as not only unpatriotic, unnecessary but wicked and definitely not in the interest of our nation or the tertiary education system in Nigeria.

    “We call on state governments to forthwith liaise with Vice-Chancellors of state institutions to announce the resumption of academic activities and grant the vice-chancellors authority to enforce the resumption. State universities should never have joined the strike in the first place,” he said.

  • ASUU Strike: FG finally gives up

    ASUU Strike: FG finally gives up

    The Federal Government has finally given up on the ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, saying “we have done the best that we can”.

     

    The Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, disclosed this to reporters at an ongoing meeting with Pro-Chancellors and Vice-Chancellors of Federal Universities at the National Universities Commission (NUC) Abuja.

     

    The meeting, at a point, went into a closed-door session.

    In the spirit of sincerity, the Government made it clear that it would not break the law

    Adamu said: “In all, we have been doing, our guide has been the directive of Mr President Muhammadu Buhari, namely, that while the unions should be persuaded to return to work, Government should not repeat the past mistakes of accepting to sign an agreement it will be unable to implement. Government should not, in the guise of resolving current challenges, sow seeds for future disruptions.

     

    “We have done the best that we can in the circumstance. After Inter-ministerial consultations and rounds of hard negotiations with all government agencies, we interacted with the Unions.

     

    “I personally, gave it all it required to resolve the current challenges. I met the Unions anywhere and everywhere possible with facts, with figures, and with absolute sincerity.

     

    “For example, I directly met with ASUU leadership in my house, in my office and at the ASUU Secretariat on several different occasions, in addition to other formal engagements going on.

     

    “To be frank with all the unions, especially with ASUU, one major issue over which Government and the Unions could not reach amicable agreement was the issue of the law on “No work, No pay”.

     

    “In the spirit of sincerity, the Government made it clear that it would not break the law. And on this, I must, openly and once again, thank all the Unions which made the sacrifice of understanding the position of Government on the matter.”

     

    According to ASUU, the strike was a hard decision it was forced to take to prevent the destruction of public universities and the system.